SERIOUS

I started thinning just like that... on the vertex, diffuse, with absolutely no hairline recession. It was stable for a while, then it progressed rapidly. In retrospect, I wish I started finasteride / minox at that early point. Go get an opinion from a professional, and a second and a third one if it's unclear. Never accept a "you're gonna be o.k." answer. Then if you have Male Pattern Baldness (which I'm 99% sure in all honesty) get on meds a.s.a.p. and never stop. You'll save TONS of hair and money if you start meds at that early point. Do you have MPB cases in your family?

LOLLLLLL There is this smegma cream (link above), also I heard there's a smegma gel in the making. I don't know if it's made with smegma, but it's supposed to help. Smeg-Cream

It doesn't loses effectiveness, it will help hair growth and hair thickening again and again. But it cannot stop Male Pattern Baldness alone (follicle miniaturization), hence the idea to complement it with a 5ar inhibitor (finasteride).

hey Omar, I heard that smegma in latin is "smegmus". Always good to know...

By the way Macca, the fact you are on finasteride / minoxidil might almost completely stop you hairloss since you are young and have minimal loss, or at least slow the process tremendously. You can't compare the older members of your family with your own situation, since they did'nt have access to meds in their youth. In that sense, we're very lucky, since it's the first time in history that people have access to hairloss treatments that actually work for a majority of people. So just relax and be consistent with it and enjoy the effect of meds for as long as you can... did'nt want to sound harsh in my previous comment, I know the effect hair loss can have psychologically speaking, particularly when you are young, but you got to give time to these meds to work. Hang in there bud, and don't do any stupid moves out of sudden despair.

Found this text from Bernstein: Rogaine (Minoxidil) has the potential to work where ever there is miniaturized hair, either the front, top or crown (however, it will not work in areas that are completely devoid of hair). The reason for the misconception that it will not work in the front is because the clinical trial performed by Merck in the 1980's, that led to FDA approval, only studied the vertex (crown) and thus the company was limited to this labeling. Several years later, Merck realized that this was a misjudgment in the design protocol and ran a new study (approximately one fifth the size of their Phase III vertex trial) to document effectiveness of the drug in the front of the scalp. This allowed them to avoid the vertex restriction in their label. Another reason for the confusion is that since the hair in the crown seems to have a longer miniaturization phase than hair in the temples, there is a greater window of time in which the medication can act on these hairs. This goes for both minoxidil and finasteride (Propecia). *** I still have the vertex restriction in the labeling of the generic minoxidil I use. They probably changed the labeling only for Rogaine. Maybe because the original studies that focused on the crown only were much bigger. But it's well known minoxidil will work everywhere anyways. Hope this help.

Bash77, yes of course minoxidil is helpful on the front. One thing though, if you have vellous hair upfront, you might see a shedding phase due to the acceleration of the hair cycles. Yes, I use it on the front, and it certainly played a role in maintaining hair upfront, since when I stopped at one point I lost some ground. Fortunately it all came back after I started again. Minoxidil for hair growth was accidentally discovered. One of the initial anecdotes include some women who were prescribed this drug for high blood pressure. They developed an increase in hair in body parts such as beard and moustache area, hair on the chest, and increased hair on arms and legs. It is not known how the drug stimulates hair growth as of yet. Testing for hair growth as a topical were done on the crown for FDA approval. Good luck

Looks like shockloss in the donor area. Not uncommon. Chances are it may comeback in the next few months. You can apply minoxidil in the area to speed up growth. You should have a better idea about the outcome at the 6-8 months mark. Let us know. Good luck.

Since you just "recently" started using meds, the best help you can find is experienced people telling you to be patient and wait "at least" a year to see how you react to those meds first, and see if you can be consistent with it, possibly for lifetime. Any other suggestions, such as referring you to a HT surgeon or number of grafts needed etc etc, would be completely ridiculous before you go through that year. Take this time as an opportunity to read and research and learn to cope with your minimal hair loss, then you will be more objective about the choices you really have. You can go on, and get that hairline lowered before you go through that year... but the chances you end up miserable in a near future are as real as your minimal hair loss. I wish you can recognize warning signs when you see them... Best of luck

Are you saying you only use minoxidil on the crown??? Minoxidil could grow hair on your tongue. Go ahead... but please not with a q-tip, apply directly on your scalp wherever it's needed. The instructions say it's prescribed for the crown only because this is the area where they decided to focus for the costly human studies (for worldwide approval). Put it on your arm, or wherever you have follicles, and it will help growth right there. You might want to consider a small FUE session for the temples if your pattern is "very" stable and your hairloss minimal. Think long term planning. Good luck.

Pure MSM (such as lignisul) is one of the least toxic substances in biology, similar in toxicity to water, and far less toxic than common table salt. Whether you believe MSM will help hair growth or not, at least it is safe. Also, I wouldn't take what a doctor, surgeon or pharmacist tells you like it's the ultimate truth. In the era of information, it's surprising (and maybe unfortunate) to see that ordinary people are sometimes more informed about some health matters than many doctors... Power to the People.

great results, good coverage... that surgery was a good choice for your short hair style congrats feelzgood

you probably just never noticed before... you're definitely more than safe at 5 months

Hi Bill, I hope everything is fine with your last HT, Was just wondering how long you ended keeping the staples, and how does the scar look like? I'm curious to know what your thoughts are about it... since it's rare to keep the staples that long, and it seems a good idea indeed (when there's a lot of tension due to multiple past strip surgeries). But from your experience, do you think it could contribute to more shockloss in the donor area? Or prevent hair to grow properly around the scar? Were the staples more difficult/painful to extract because the skin grew around them? Did it create obvious train marks? Finally, would you recommend it (in cases with a lot of tension in the donor zone, or in cases with a history of enlarged scar)? And do you think keeping the staples even "longer" than a month would be beneficial? Thanks in advance!

You can apply aloe vera few times a day on recipient... will help with redness

There was no need to say that what I wrote to help out others was "ridiculous", when it's clearly not, and when you don't even care to make sure of the context before throwing "insults". If I'm an idiot, then I guess you're an imbecile. A cheap shot may attract one in return. That being said, I'm truly sorry that a balding brother cannot sustain propecia, for the time being. For your information, in all these years of research about hairloss I have seen people trying it years later with a good response and no sides. I sincerely hope you will find a solution, and let's put this misunderstanding behind us if you don't mind. p.s. After ingestion, a single dose of .25mg of finasteride could inhibit 5ar reductase activity (commonly DHT) to very interesting levels for more than a week. The curve of normalization that follows might create some 5ar fluctuation, but still might be stable enough to give you positive results at a dose of 1/4 propecia a week, while probably eliminating side effects. This might be just enough to keep that hair (for a while) in the back of the crown that you want in order to ensure good results from your HT, and gradually start to create a tolerance effect from your body, giving you room to boost the dosage in the future.

My thoughts and prayers are with your daughter, yourself and all your family... I wish your daughter a complete and quick recovery

No problems Bill, I understand

Also, you might want to wear socks over your hands to prevent from scratching at night... Sounds weird, but imagine you're dreaming about scratching your head, and realize with horror, that you're actually doing it!!! Also, you could ask your HT doctor to give you a sleeping pill for the night "before" your HT... often that night is difficult, anxieties, etc... good luck

Tos7581, good luck with your HT surgery! You're in good hands with SMG!

I second latinlotus on that

Edit: nevermind LOL I realize we're in the process of hijacking this thread. By the way, one hair grafts are "counterproductive" when it's time to plant in the crown and vertex, and often have to be coupled together in a same incision to create volume when there is too many of them. What's the point of wanting to split a whole lot of grafts into one's, when they'd be a drag in a mega-session context? There is no point. Cheers

lol I know... well said best of luck Tos7581

Nice to hear that Kaounis, as I'm sure Dr. Konior is one of the best. As I said, That doesn't make H&W the ultimate best legends of the hair transplant glorious history... But we got to give them the credit as to their strip extraction method. Now are they better than Konior, Shapiro, and other top docs? Question of preference... and on what you're looking for

Oh, another fact... Their grafts counts (amount of 1'2'3'4s) is absolutely NO different than any other clinics. They get approximately the same amount of each groupings than any other clinic... just often MORE of them. That doesn't make them the ultimate best legends of the hair transplant glorious history... that's not my point. But we got to give them the credit as to their strip extraction method.